Damien, Isaac, Alex, Amelia, and AnaClaire enjoying an ice cream treat.

Well, we finally got showers.  Yay!  We drove last night to Grants, NM.  We needed a place to take showers, plug in our camper to recharge its batteries, do laundry, etc.  So all of that happened.  It was great!  Our campsite was just across from the playground, so the kids were having a great time on the playground.  Of course, they had already had their showers, so they came away rather dirty.  We were still in the desert, so there wasn’t any grass – just a lot of dirt.  There was a merry-go-round on the playground, and of course Dominic had a grand time riding it, and promptly vomited up his continental breakfast that was provided at the campground.  He recovered well though.  We were late getting on the road (11:00am), so again we spent the day trying to play catch up with our schedule.

Keams Canyon, AZ

We took a very scenic highway in New Mexico that took us through the Hopi and Navaho territories.  We saw a couple canyons and many mesas.  The colors of the mesas were just gorgeous.  You could see lines of color in the rock.  We were still in the high desert areas, so there were still no trees to speak of.  I was able to see 3 wild goats on the side of the road.  There were not many gas stations, so we filled up at pretty much each area that had a gas station (those were at least an hour apart).  I was constantly surprised at how many abandoned homes there were.  The homes were mostly very small with lots of mobile homes.  We saw so many structures (homes, businesses, outbuildings) with tires on top of the roof.  There were tires everywhere we looked: hanging on fences, partially buried in the ground, etc.  I still haven’t discovered why there were tires on top of roofs, so if anyone can enlighten me, please do so!   I read in a AAA book that there are about 200,000 Native Americans who live in this area, which is about the size of the state of West Virginia.  It seemed very lonely out in some of those places.

I am hoping that when we finally stop at one of our destinations I may be able to find a good book to describe the geological features I am seeing.  The kids and I studied Earth Science this year, and I remember a little about the geology of this area, but I want to learn much more about it.  The scenery was just absolutely fascinating, which is one of the reasons that it took me so long to get yesterday’s post out.  I was mesmerized by the beauty.

Arizona

We still didn’t quite reach our destination for tonight, so we may be modifying our schedule.  It is so hard to pass interesting place after interesting place because we really want to have the time to see something particular.  I am always so curious – I just want to learn so much.  I am looking forward to slowing down some now that we have finally reached our initial destination area.  Books are always a good solution for me, but I don’t know if I will be able to find a book to explain the tires.

Until tomorrow,

Rebecca